Local small-business owner and community volunteer says campaign will focus on affordability, neighbourhoods, responsible finances and a more transparent City Hall
PETERBOROUGH, ON — Lucas Graham has officially launched his campaign to represent Otonabee Ward on Peterborough City Council in the 2026 municipal election.
Graham is a local small-business owner, project manager and Trent University graduate who has been involved with community organizations including Volunteer Peterborough. He says he is running because many of the issues residents are dealing with every day — housing, infrastructure, taxes, transit and access to City services — ultimately come down to whether City Hall makes good decisions and follows through on them.
“Peterborough doesn’t need grand promises from City Hall. It needs a council that can identify problems, explain what it’s doing about them, and then show residents whether it actually worked,” said Graham. “That’s the standard I want to bring to the job.”
Graham’s campaign will centre on four priorities: making it easier to build homes people can afford; creating safer, better-connected and more climate-ready neighbourhoods; supporting a strong local economy while taking municipal finances seriously; and building a City Hall that is more transparent and responsive to residents.
Transparency will be a particular focus of the campaign. Graham is developing public tools intended to make Council decisions, voting records and resident feedback easier to follow.
“Residents shouldn’t need to watch hours of Council meetings or dig through piles of meeting documents just to figure out what happened and who supported it,” Graham said. “If a decision is important enough for Council to make, it should be easy for the public to understand.”
Graham said his campaign will also emphasize direct conversations with residents throughout Otonabee Ward.
“I want this campaign to be useful even to people who never vote for me. That means explaining what Council actually controls, sharing what I’m hearing at the doors, and being specific about what I would do differently.”
The municipal election will take place on Monday, October 26, 2026.
More information about Graham’s campaign, priorities and upcoming events is available at lucasgraham.vote.